[l008com]

I have a Troy Bilt 4-cycle gas powered weed wacker (TB 675 EC). The thing is great, no mixing gas and oil, it's a beast compared to smaller electric models, and I've also had very good luck with the pole saw attachment.

The problem is that the thing is heavy, and really gets hard to hold by the time you get halfway through your yard. So I went and bought a troy built 'universal fit' weed wacker shoulder strap. I figure it would solve all my problems, but it does not. Here is a picture of thing hanging on my wall with the strap attached:

So as you can see, both ends of the strap are ahead of the handle! And of course, all the weight is in the engine. So when you put this thing on your shoulder, the engine falls straight down, so you have to hold it the whole time with the handle. And that handle is now uncomfortably far behind you. You can loosen the strap and push the thing out in front of you, but then you end up holing most of the weight of the thing with your arms defeating the purpose of a shoulder strap.

What you need is someplace on the motor to hook one end of the strap, so everything would be balanced. But there is no such thing, it's all cheap plastic moulding that looks like it would break very easily if you tried to support it's weight with it.

Note that the reason it's balanced on the wall is because one hook is directly under the motor, and the other is just ahead of the front most handle (not the one with the trigger).

Anyone have any thoughts on this? It's a great weed wacker otherwise, but I have a large yard and it's brutal using this thing without a proper shoulder strap.

 

[l008com]

So I tried this and it helped a little. But even with both ends of the strap moved as close to the engine as possible, the engine end still weighs far more than the rest, and you still end up needing to hold engine up the whole time you're using it, and at a super awkward, semi-behind-you angle. I wish I had some more research before I spend $200 on this damn thing.

Any other ideas? It seems like the entire motor is covered in one kind of plastic moulding or another, I don't see anything or anywhere I could hook the end of the strap. Unless I'm missing something.

 

[l008com]

I am baffled why this thing doesn't already have a nice little loop there, something you could use for a shoulder strap, AND something you could hang it by. I have to balance the thing on this huge flat hooks to store the stupid thing. The longer I own this thing, the less impressed I am by it.

 

[l008com]

The problem is that theres nothing to connect to on mine. Both ends of the strap (though in the picture only one) are as far up the pole as they can go, and its still way off balance. Beyond that, there's handle, then there's engine covered in plastic. Theres just no place else to put it. If I could, I'd just hook one end of the strap right to the rear of the motor, then move the other end around if it was too off balance in the other direction, and that would be nice and easy. But I cna't see any way to do that.

 

[l008com]

There's nothing to tie on to. It's just an angled black piece of plastic, the rope would just slide on to the handle. Unless that piece can be removed, then I'd have something to clamp on to. But im not sure if it can, ill have to poke around next time I use it.

 

[l008com]

I've come up with the easiest solution. I just stopped using the shoulder strap. It's significantly less arm strain to just hold the tool directly, than to try to hold it on the way off balance shoulder strap. At some point, I might try to take off some bezeling and see if I can get to something solid in there to clamp to. But ultimately, even putting one end of the strap right behind the handle won't be good enough, it will still be way off balance. One end HAS to be connected to the BACK of this thing. It's the only way to get the shoulder strap to be balanced properly, AND to have the handle in the right position relative to your body, that you don't have the power arm behind you to use this thing.